Recipe Overview
This pink ciabatta is made with prickly pear cactus powder and dried strawberries. It has a unique color, an open crumb structure, and a soft, chewy texture. The key steps are cold autolyse, mixing with sourdough starter and yeast, adding reserved water in batches, and adding olive oil all at once. The dough will be loose and sticky at first, but it will gradually come together and develop strong gluten. Fermentation, stretch-and-folds, and cold fermentation help create a lighter, airier texture.
Ingredients
Bread flour: 8.8 oz
Salt: 1 tsp
Prickly pear cactus powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 5.3 oz
Instant dry yeast: 1/4 tsp
Sourdough starter: 1.3 oz
Reserved water: 0.7 oz
Olive oil: 2 tsp / 0.35 oz
Dried strawberries: 1.1 oz
Instructions
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Add bread flour, prickly pear cactus powder, salt, and water into the dough maker. Select Mix mode and mix for 2 minutes until no dry flour remains and a dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a 40-minute cold autolyse.
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Add sourdough starter and instant dry yeast to the autolysed dough. Select Mix mode, set a 30-minute cycle, and mix until well combined.
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Once the sourdough starter and yeast are fully absorbed, add the reserved water in two batches, then pour in the olive oil all at once. The dough will be quite runny at first, start to come together around 15 minutes, and become smooth and well-rounded by 30 minutes. Knead until fully developed with a strong, clean windowpane test. Dampen your hands to prevent sticking.
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Cut the dried strawberries into small pieces and soak them in water or rum. After the dough is mixed, gently fold in the soaked dried strawberries. Shape the dough into a smooth ball, place it back into the dough maker, and proof at 79°F for 30 minutes.
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Remove the lid and do a full stretch-and-fold around the dough. Dampen your hands, lift the dough edges, and fold them toward the center. Cover again and continue proofing at 79°F for another 30 minutes.
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After two rounds of proofing and stretch-and-folds, place the dough in the fridge for cold fermentation at 39°F for about 12 hours. If you skip cold fermentation, proof directly at 79°F until doubled in size.
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Take out the overnight fermented dough and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Dust your work surface and proofing cloth with flour, flip the dough out, shape it into a rectangle, and divide it into 6 portions. Use plenty of flour to prevent sticking, cover with a proofing cloth, and bench proof at room temperature for 30 minutes.
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Preheat the home oven on sourdough mode to 446°F. Bake for about 20 minutes and add steam for the first 2 minutes.
Tips
Use ice water for dough mixing in summer.
If your oven has no steam function, bake with a Dutch oven or use a steamed towel method.
Keep the fermentation temperature between 77°F–82°F.
